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PARIS: Astronomers captured the moment when a supermassive black hole tore apart a star the size of our Sun, releasing images on Monday showing the devastating process in unprecedented detail.
Using telescopes from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), they were able to monitor the process’s flash of light, known as a tidal disruption event, from a black hole just over 215 million light-years from Earth.
They observed that the star was physically torn apart as it was sucked into the giant jaws of the black hole.
“The idea of a black hole ‘sucking in’ a nearby star sounds like science fiction,” said Matt Nicholl, professor and researcher at the Royal Astronomical Society at the University of Birmingham, lead author of Monday’s study.
“But that’s exactly what happens in a tidal disruption event.” When a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it is subject to the phenomenal force of the black hole’s gravity.
The star can physically break apart and its matter can be pulled into long threads, a process known as “spaghetti”.
“When these forces exceed the cohesive force of the star, the star loses pieces that rush towards the black hole,” said Stephane Basa, a researcher at the Laboratory of Astrophysics in Marseille.
“This exceptional influx of matter produces intense electromagnetic emissions, which last for several months while the debris is digested.” Basa said that about half of the star remained after the tidal disruption event. “‘Only’ half of its mass has disappeared,” he said.
While other tidal disruption events have been observed before, the powerful burst of light they emit is often obscured by a curtain of dust and debris.
Posted in Dawn, Oct 13, 2020
